Pregnancy – Do’s and Don’ts

1. Avoid tobacco, alcohol, too much of caffeine during pregnancy all of these are related with untoward effects in pregnancy.
2. No self-medication without consulting your doctor. Especially in first 3 months of pregnancy as your baby’s organs are forming now. Even your supplements like multi-vitamins, iron and calcium is recommended after 2 months.
3. Please be careful with your herbal products like herbs, herbal teas, ginseng, and other stuff during pregnancy. Similar to most of the allopathic drugs, even these herbal products do not have proper evidence or proof of safety during pregnancy. In fact some moms who have taken these products tend to bleed excessively during delivery.
4. Avoid Stress and tension. This is one of the main culprits which attack your physical body in surprising ways. For example, in pregnant women, stress can cause variety of pains, insomnia, and even lead to preterm or low birth weight. Not only will it cause a lot of stress in you but also on the people surrounding you. So please be relaxed and enjoy your pregnancy.
5. Do not handle cat or cat litters as the cat might transmit Toxoplasmosis which causes birth defect to your fetus.
6. Please be careful with food like nasi lemak, nasi kandar, roti canai, fast foods or any rich food like too much of chocolate/cheese etc. All these food can cause indigestion, bloatedness, reflux and gastritis as your digestion is slower during pregnancy.
7. No raw food, no raw egg, be careful of certain fish like shark, mackerel, tuna and etc which may contain high levels of mercury.
8. Please avoid all the extra supplements like spirulina and others. Not enough is known about the use of blue-green algae during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid. Please stick to your doctor’s recommendation. Look for FDA aproval or ministry of health approval for pregnancy in any herbal supplements.
9. Please do not take excessive levels of ‘ikan haruan essence’ or other products like ‘gamat’, etc. for healing purposes, some of them create bad keloids. Please maintain in moderations.
10. Consumption of herbal alcohol products like Dome/Yomeishu during post-partum period is not recommended but some of the traditional old folks will insist during confinement period. As a general rule, it takes 2 hours for an average woman to get rid of the alcohol from 1 standard alcoholic drink. So remember stick to 1 standard glass ~ 30ml and drink immediately after breast feeding and next feeding should be after 3-4 hrs. Another way is to express your milk and keep for next subsequent feedings before taking these drinks.

…..and before I end, a small quote for moms who are going to deliver soon..

Just as a woman’s heart knows how and when to pump, her lungs to inhale, and her hand to pull back from fire, so she knows when and how to give birth. -Virginia Di Orio…..Wish you best of luck..